Dairyman Built His Own Rotary Parlor

Dairyman Built His Own Rotary Parlor DAIRY EQUIPMENT & IDEAS Dairy Equipment & Ideas 23-5-12 John Reitsma is taking his cows for a ride, and they like it. His milking crews like it, too, because it's a quiet ride. Reitsma says his new rotary parlor is so quiet that it's almost eerie. "There are no clanging gates," he explains. "From the time the cow gets on until she gets off, there are solid rails around her with nothing to open or close." Rotary parlors are gaining in popularity as dairymen discover benefits that go beyond noise reduction. Reitsma built his after touring large dairies in Germany, Australia, and New Zealand. He reports that the rotary parlor is more efficient to operate than his two state-of-the-art double-20 herringbone parlors which are just four years old. What's more, the new rotary cost less to build on a per stall basis but will handle significantly more animals per hour. "With each of the herringbones, we milk 2800 cows, three times a day with four people. Each milking takes about seven hours," he says. "The rotary parlor milks 3,100 cows three times a day with five guys and we expect to get it up to 4,000 cows per 8-hour shift." Reitsma's rotary parlor sits in a building 120 ft. wide and 350 ft. long. The wheel is 100 ft. in diameter and fitted with 80 stalls. It makes one revolution every 7 minutes. Three electric motors power the platform, though only one is actually necessary. The dairyman says there are actually fewer moving parts than in a more traditional parlor so regular maintenance is minimal. The platform rolls on large, hard plastic wheels. With no pressure points and with a solid surface underneath and above, the wheels are expected to last forever, suggests Reitsma. The building also contains two 600 cow holding pens, one for washing and the other a drip bin. Cows learn to step out of the drip bin onto the rotating platform where two members of the milking crew attach milkers. At the end of the ride, two more workers prepare cows to move off the platform. Rotaries have been built to hold as many as 120 stalls, and a friend of Reitsma's built one that held only 20 stalls. The limiting factor is labor, he says. A rotary parlor requires a minimum of one person on the front end and one on the back end. "You need enough to keep two guys busy," says Reitsma. "Once the thing runs smooth, it's incredible." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, John Reitsma, 75 N. 400 W, Jerome, Idaho 83338 (ph 208 324-4536).

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